Friday, March 31, 2017

Clouds Oceans and Diagonal Lines - Art in Sydney this Week.

I mean really what are the chances of seeing two shows, two consecutive nights; both painting and both dealing with the elements of nature, both within a square boundary and both with visually compelling diagonal lines as integral to the compositions?

Adrian McDonald, AHAB:Reading Moby Dick.

I would have said zero chance at all so it looks like I will need to update my art actuarial table for a start. The first show was Adrian McDonald's show AHAB:Reading Moby Dick, and while I was ready for the lines in Adrian's work I was not really expecting the series of grey scale abstractions that are the ground.. or ocean (or whale skin) that the two crossing lines rest upon. Though complex pattern is a kind of leitmotif in much of McDonald's works and one of the great joys when viewing them, I wasn't really expecting a combination quite like this. The following night I found myself at China Heights gallery for Pushing Past by Brooklyn Whelan, his first Sydney solo since Heavy Weather in late 2015. This show quite shocked me though in a positive way. This time it was the addition of a very bold and straight diagonal line punching right through the familiar Whelan cloudscape.

While I am aware that the similarities between the shows are somewhat superficial, it is curious to come across two artists working from very different art backgrounds finding similar resolution, and my finding them one night after the next. So "do yourself a favour;" go check them out; meditative and beautiful to look at. Water, cloud, lines and very tight palettes. Pushing Past is on this weekend only at China Heights Gallery 12 - 5.
AHAB:Reading Moby Dick 30 March 25 April 2017 at Crawford Gallery.